I’m more of a consumer of the talents on display in the group. My background is EE engineer that spent most of the career in technical sales with 25 years in semiconductors (Texas Instruments, Signetics, Mitsubishi). Today I do tech support for some engineering design software and manage a small network of 30 computers and a server. Otherwise, my working days are coming to an end. Nixies and clocks are an expensive hobby but I’ve met some really brilliant people all over the world doing it.
My love of nixies goes back to a senior college project to design something for use around the home. I had to do this as a graduation requirement for my college advisor and document starting from concept to demonstration of a final product. I bought some B7971’s (two for $7.95) from a magazine ad by Burnstein-Applebee along with a bunch of TTL logic chips and some perfboard. Back then, software was on punchcards with a mainframe, so the clock logic was lots of gates, flops and counters. I quickly figured out that a 15 segment display had the added joy of coming up with a font logic and lots more transistors for the breadboard, so I switched to a real “nixie” CK8754 (NL-840) and built the clock with newly released SN74141 outputs, point to point wiring and no sockets. Along with a filament transformer and a crude voltage doubler, my dorm room clock ran reliably for another 35 years before one of the HV caps in the doubler circuit decided to dry out, catch fire and try to burn the house down. I learned a lot about the value of no mains in the clock housing. I also learned that a well designed nixie could run for a LONG time. Today I build and modify kits and complain about firmware and I always manage to find bugs somewhere. I finally got to use those B7971’s that were sitting in storage since the early 70’s! I don’t do software but still get the urge for design so most of my “enhancements” are small. The thing that still fascinates me is the amazing nixie tube in all of its variations. There is no substitute for the soft glow of a cross-fading PWM controlled nixie. I’m thrilled to see people like Dalibor completely reinvent the art of the nixie and all of the really talented folks around the world that have designed some really beautiful kits. There is SO much more possible with processors and the FET technology that was not around when I was starting. Vacuum tubes, BJT, and early TTL were the black magic of my college experience and PCB manufacturing with surface mount is light years ahead of the stuff of the 60’s. Thanks for keeping the group going and for some of the incredible sharing of concept and design. Jeff Walton From: neonixie-l [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2018 10:03 AM To: neonixie-l Subject: [neonixie-l] Welcome & please introduce yourself! Ladies & Gentlemen,,, We are getting a steady stream of new members - it'd be great if, instead of just lurking, you could introduce yourselves with a bit of detail about your interests, what you've built or intend to build/dream of building. Even what gets you up the morning and makes you smile! Welcome, one and all to this great community! Nick -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/204f1103-91ff-4ad8-8286-1da2901483fb%40googlegroups.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/204f1103-91ff-4ad8-8286-1da2901483fb%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/5ba3ed8d.1c69fb81.30dd2.443f%40mx.google.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
